Cakes are often the visual centerpieces of weddings, birthdays, and other festive events. The chefs who create these masterpieces have the dual challenge of baking delicious desserts and designing a works of art.

Sometimes the simplest touches may add elegance to a meal. You may not have to go to pastry chef school to learn this simple form of puff pastry. But if you pursue a pastry chef career, you may make variations on this recipe.

If a new Indiana proposal goes through, one of the country's newest baking schools will be razed on the grounds of a former state hospital, once home to those suffering from mental illness. The plan is demonstrative of piqued public interest in baking as a career choice.

Mention Italian food and most people think of pasta or pizza. How often do Italian desserts come to mind? When you study culinary arts, however, you may explore all the culinary traditions of a culture's food.

New York City's ban on trans fats signals the end of an era in flaky, delicious, shortening-laden baked goods. With a pastry chef school education, however, you may not even miss this hazardous ingredient.

If you're experiencing your annual love affair with summer fruits, consider showcasing them in a refreshing sorbet. Sorbet is a year-round staple of the pastry chef's menu, a refreshing palate-cleanser to close any meal.

Baking training may cover a very wide range of kitchen skills. Almost all culinary institutes may teach basic baking of breads and cakes. If you want to become a fancy pastry chef, you may probably want to attend a special school.

Several chefs have described how a job in catering started their culinary careers. Catering schools may teach more than how to make an open faced sandwich. You may learn enough to move from catering to a serious cooking career.

We used to have one option to sweeten our food: sugar. Now there are pink, blue, and yellow packets that offer 100 times the sugar power without any calories. It's appealing for coffee, but what about for baking cookies?

Wolfgang Puck began his culinary arts practice as a child, when he cooked pastries with his mother in the kitchen. While pastries can be made as desserts, they are also often associated with breakfast. And if you think breakfast pastries consist entirely of doughnuts, scones, and croissants, think again.

Are cinnamon rolls your favorite part of breakfast? Do friends rave about your homemade pies? Do the difficulties of making baklava seem like exciting challenges to you? Perhaps you may be destined for a career as a pastry chef.

Humans are "hard-wired to enjoy food," says writer-researcher Harriet Brown, "it's a survival mechanism." Brown takes us to task for "dutifully" choking down healthy foods we don't like, eating on the run, and aggressively over-eating when we feel deprived. Perhaps we should be less diet conscious and more pleasure conscious in our eating habits. Would you like to contribute to this worthy cause?

A Greek pastry chef has given himself a huge job. He's trying to get into the Guinness Book of World Records by baking the world's largest baklava. It's not the kind of task they teach in pastry schools.

Students at pastry chef schools might think that being a personal baker to the President of the United States is the highest point you may reach with your culinary degree. Thaddeus R. DuBois thought so, too.

The lost art of fine cuisine is being rediscovered by average Americans everywhere. Classes at your local culinary arts school may make the difference in your ability to keep your New Year's resolution to eat better this year.

Genetic engineers have manufactured a bionic wheat resistant to overmixing. It's great news for mass producers, but even better for the artisan bakers and bread baking schools who stand to encounter a growing demand for unprocessed food.

If you are a politically-minded person, you might dream of becoming president. If your dream is a career as a chef, you might dream of becoming the president's chef. Cristeta Comerford realized that dream when she accepted the most sought after private chef job, head cook at the White House.

How much of your culinary career will be spent competing with other chefs? Very few culinary arts schools have football teams, but today's culinary education should include a course on how to compete in the kitchen.

Chefs and dieticians have long worked together in a variety of institutional environments, such as wellness centers, hospitals, and long-term care facilities. Now, more of these professionals are integrating both fields to help clients understand food, and make delicious, healthy meals.

You already know that careers in culinary arts may land you anywhere between Argentina and Amsterdam. But did you ever think that the most exciting of those places could be a perfect stranger's kitchen? If you've never considered the lucrative world of the personal chef, then read on, and get ready to let your culinary school training work for you.

Leave it to Naked Chef Jamie Oliver to stir up culinary controversy. A year ago, he began a well-intended campaign to apply the culinary arts to school lunches across Britain. His efforts, which the New Statesman labels a "jihad against junk food," have whipped up his critics. Still, he counts Tony Blair--and hundreds of newly-informed school children--among his culinary fans.

While a flat urban oasis may be a Des Moines neighborhood with a Barnes and Noble and a Starbucks, the flat urban oasis referenced here is Urban Flats, a Florida restaurant and a great place to be a chef.

In the age of high culinary arts and celebrity chefs, the publication of a fresh 75th anniversary edition of 'The Joy of Cooking' reminds us that you don't need a culinary degree to create a bestselling cookbook.

If you are a creative person who enjoys food and wine, you might consider a career as a chef. A chef's career is a real adventure. The chef's training process may not be easy, but it is an exciting part of the journey.

Jack Milan did not become Catering Magazine's Caterer of the Year 2004 by accident. His catering career began after he had already a successful corporate consultant and then started his own very successful restaurant.

Chefs used to be full of secrets. They guarded their recipes jealously and refused to allow anyone into their kitchens. But today's world of TV celebrity chefs has made sharing part of the game. They are proud of their culinary training and they want to let others enjoy it, too.

You may never imagine where your culinary degree might lead you. For some people, chef school is the ticket to a world of adventure. For one chef school graduate, it led to a fine catering job in the U.K.

Chef Eduan Naude built his culinary career on specialties like worm, antelope, and crocodile. His sometimes shocking, always authentic menu pays tribute to the culinary arts of South Africa's diverse ethnic groups.

From 'swan gizzard sauce' to 'Texas Rattlesnake Chili,' more and more chefs are establishing careers as culinary historians, recreating historic dishes from ancient recipes. But do these age-old delicacies actually taste good?

Graduates of culinary institutes may have a whole world of culinary career paths to choose from. You probably won't start out as the top chef in a fancy restaurant when you graduate, but there may be many other ways of honing and showing your skills.

There's a reason that the preparation of fine cuisine is taught at a culinary arts school. There is a lot of art in a culinary art career. The most successful graduates of culinary arts schools are the people who are the most creative and artistic in their approach to the work.

Due in part to television programs, food channels, and America's obsession with dieting, chefs are more important and more famous than ever. Culinary Careers Part II will take a look at various chef jobs and what kind of chef training may be required.

Today's chef might supervise a staff of other chefs at larger institutions, prepare food in their own restaurant, or showcase their culinary talents on a TV cooking show. What kind of chef career would you want training for?

The New Gastronomy's pastry chefs roll dough with the rest of them--except they add everything from chlorophyll to calcium chloride to the recipe. For some truly crazy desserts, check out this new culinary art.

Learn about a baker in California began a profitable profession in the culinary arts because ordinary cookies made him ill. He invented his own recipes and took his skills from baking class all the way to the bank.

The institutions that used to be called cooking schools now go by the descriptive title: culinary arts schools. Does the change have to do with marketing and promotion, or is there are real reason for the emphasis on art?

Most culinary degree seekers just want a job after they complete chef school, but it's the positions they seek early on that determine whether they're viewed as chef specialists or masters of many cuisines.

If you're a chocoholic, why not get paid for indulging your deepest desires? With a culinary degree, aspiring chocolate tasters may turn their passion into a career selecting, buying, and marketing chocolate.

Your culinary degree may launch a career that goes way beyond the kitchen of a restaurant. There are thousands of chef school graduates who never see the inside of a public kitchen--they take private chef jobs for the rich and famous.

If the mad dash from kitchen to dinner table isn't your culinary style, consider a career as a research chef. With the chance to fine tune a single recipe to your heart's content, your creations will reach a new degree of culinary perfection.

If you add some acting classes to your chef's education, you might land one of the growing number of chef jobs on television. And you'll probably make two or three times the average salary for a regular chef.

There are many different levels in the culinary arts. Not everyone in a culinary career is a chef. In better establishments, a chef's job description may be very specific, and people are careful not to misuse the title.

The American school cafeteria. Perhaps not the epicenter of gourmet cuisine, but if chefs like Alice Waters and Ann Cooper have their way, your local elementary school could soon be serving five-star lunches.

The newest Star Wars movies are filled with death-defying light saber fights and star fighters moving at intergalactic speeds. You don't see a lot of is eating. What will a culinary arts career be like in if and when we mere humans master space travel? Will the culinary schools of the future include space cooking as a regular subject?

Once again, food establishments have become homes away from home for a world of travelers in constant motion. As a result, hospitality careers take on a whole new meaning and importance in our culture.

It's no secret that the sun is setting on the ritual of family dinners. While this presents a cultural loss on a number of levels, one of the worst is that today's children feel no connection to the food they eat. Culinary school graduates are perfectly poised to help recreate this connection, and groups like Spoons Across America are making it as easy as pie.

All the big stars are doing it, and you may too. This winter, use your culinary arts skills for more than just putting food on the table. With the right inspiration, the right ideas, and your skills as a chef, you may feed hundreds, even thousands, with the proceeds from a single event.

As far as injuries go in the world of culinary careers, cuts and burns get all the glamour. But if you're a chef, you will be standing on rock hard floors, flashing knives like a ninja, and leaning over hot, boiling goodness on the stove for hours at a time. You'll also be moving as fast as you can to fill your orders. It's a recipe for disaster.

Slow food? The very concept is amusing for anybody who has ever worked in a successful commercial kitchen, but it's catching on around the world. The Slow Food movement was started in Italy in 1989, a direct response to the popularity of the fast food restaurants and the lifestyle they encourage. According to the Slow Food homepage, "Slow Food works to defend biodiversity in our food supply, spread taste education and connect producers of excellent foods with co-producers through events and initiatives."

Advertising themselves as "today's solution to the age-old dinner challenge," the sisters (and, okay, the brothers, too) who run My Girlfriend's Kitchen spend their days helping their patrons cook, not cooking for them. That's right. Imagine a chef career where you do the shopping, prep, and cleanup while your diners do the cooking! The idea is simple: clients cook a dozen take-home meals for themselves in a two-hour session. With a menu of 14 dishes that changes each month, clients never grow bored with the culinary offerings.

Thinking of starting your own catering business? The rewards of working catering jobs seem obvious: you may create your own menu, work your own hours, and choose who your coworkers. But a culinary catering career extends far beyond a lof for food - business training is highly valuable. Even if you're a great cook, the business aspects of catering jobs may determine whether you succeed or fail.

Soy has gained a lot of attention over the last several years, acclaimed by many as a source of complete protein and omega-3 fatty acids. But there are still some who find soy unappealing, including culinary career professionals such as chef Daniel Patterson, who, according to his article in the New York Times Magazine, felt that tofu was "dull."

Wanting to grill those delicious specialty short ribs? No problem; simply go to the local grocery store, pick out the cut you want, oh, wait. You're the chef in charge of meat fabrication. In your restaurant, the meat is fresh. You'll just have to carve the cut you want.

You've been there before. After waiting nearly half an hour to be seated, you sat in the dark for another half an hour before any waiter even acknowledged your presence. Finally, an unfriendly, rushed waitress took your order, but after forty-five minutes, the food still hasn't come.

Summer is almost here, and it's common to kick off barbeque season by doing some Memorial Day grilling. Barbequing may be considered an easier way of cooking, but if you're aspiring to a culinary career, or are looking forward to restaurant chef jobs, an average barbeque just won't light your fire. Follow these tips for the barbeque.

Famous celebrities fork over thousands of dollars to hire master chefs to prepare a meal to remember on their wedding day. Just why do they pay a fortune to eat and just what are the rich, famous and gift bearing eating?

With fall and winter approaching, chefs of all types will be heading to the kitchen to prepare those holiday classics. If you could nominate a 'Supporting Ingredient' for any holiday spread, herbs would definitely take center stage.

Your personal home chef training has to include new and different recipes - like the following welcome additions to your salad repertoire. Your friends will be impressed that your salad didn't require a full chef education.

Foie gras is a guilty pleasure for many, and not just because of its artery-clogging fat content. The production of this delicacy involves force-feeding geese--a process many diners and chefs find a bit hard to swallow. Foie gras producers say they've developed a more humane alternative, but the fate of foie gras may already be sealed.

Until very recently, if you wanted to drink pomegranate juice, you were left to squeeze one yourself. But these days, if you're thinking about a culinary career, you're likely to find yourself scanning your recipe books for ways to use this delicious and popular fruit.

Organic food used to be relegated to the subcultures of hippies and earthy eccentrics. But these days, even Wal-Mart is selling organic food, and anyone with an interest in culinary arts should be feverishly comparing prices in order to include (and advertise) their organic ingredients.

Chicken: though it's rising in popularity due to its reputation as a healthy food and its ability to blend with almost any dish, it may also be difficult to cook well. This may seem like a small aspect of your culinary career, but attending a chef school to learn ways to cook difficult foods may be well worth your time.

Whether it's paranoia over mad cow disease or bad press over the latest E. coli outbreaks, public awareness of food safety tends to be alarmist at best. So if you want a culinary career, you need to choose one of the cooking schools that may teach you food safety as well as food preparation. How important is food safety? More soldiers died from tainted meat than battle injuries in the Spanish American War, and a century later, Americans still distrust the food supply and the culinary establishments that prepare it. The good chef, like the good scout, needs to be prepared, so make sure a class in food safety is part of your culinary school's degree program.

America's interest in foreign cuisine is growing: ethnic food no longer just means a burrito or Chinese take-out. Chef school degree seekers should be aware that Japanese sushi, Thai cuisine, and Caribbean food are becoming increasingly popular, and Ethiopian food is one such specialty that that reflects American's growing interest in other cultures.

Want to make Ziti al Forno (Baked Ziti)? Looking to stew up a batch of posole? Want to add a Greek flair to your salad? A tip for chefs in training: just throw in a bit of oregano. You'll be cooking in a long culinary arts tradition, adding flavor to your dishes, and possibly reaping some health benefits as well.

According to the National Foundation for the Treatment of Pain, some twenty-five percent of women and eight percent of men suffer from migraine headaches. What not all migraine sufferers may know is that migraines may be caused by the foods they eat.

They're the color of sunshine and associated with refreshing summer drinks like strawberry lemonade. But looking beyond the beverages and adding lemons to your cooking or baking can offer a whole new twist to your culinary arts projects.

Chilies are some of the tastiest, most beautiful fruits used in cooking. With colors ranging from deep green to bright yellow to rich red, and tastes ranging from mild and sweet to hot and spicy, the variety of chilies means that they can be used as a complement to almost any dish. If you're interested in a culinary career, getting a culinary arts education may be your first step toward learning how to combine chilies with other ingredients to create delicious dishes.

"Ciao, ya'all" can be nothing other than a salutation from an Italian Texan. Well, it can also be the name of a cookbook. Both cases originate from two Gumba Gringos--Damien Mandola and JohnnyCarrabba two dudes who've made careers as chefs, broadcasters, and authors.

Marketing is more important than ever in restaurant management, and 'menu engineers' are at the forefront of the trend. With a culinary degree and dash PR talent, you may launch a career as a restaurant makeover artist.

If you are thinking of a restaurant career, don't let your view get too narrow. Think of the doors of your restaurant school as the front gate of a dream. Remember, a restaurant career may be many things.

Learn how to perfect your simple rice recipe and add those beautiful taste and aromas with just few extra steps. If reading this interests you. Browse our Culinary Schools to see if there is a match for you.

Is it a restaurant manager's job to make sure customers don't get fat from eating at his or her establishment? Not according to a recent law passed by Congress. Your restaurant training teaches you to provide good food. According to the new law, it's the customer's job to eat wisely.

As the economy improves and people begin to travel again, the number of hospitality jobs may grow. If you love food, wine, and good living and you enjoy helping people have a good time, a hospitality career may be for you.

Dogs have long held a dear place in the American heart, but recently they've found themselves at center stage: all of a sudden it's hip to spoil your pup. For many, that means dog spas, special diets, dog therapy (it's true!) and of course, never leaving home without them. For those in the culinary arts this presents an interesting conflict: the customer versus the Board of Health.

Vanilla has always been a mystery to me. How can something that tastes so bitter make my food taste so good? Like many Americans, I love vanilla not only in my food, but in lotions and candles as well.

Back in the early '90s, when the low-fat food craze hit full swing, restaurants began marking certain items on their menus as "heart healthy" or "lite fare." While many customers enjoyed the ease this custom provided, the restaurant itself also enjoyed an image boost as it appeared more socially aware and interested in its clients' needs.

As the chef/owner of a restaurant, you are charged with providing your customers with just the right atmosphere for a dining experience. From architecture and decor to menus and table settings --even to the color of the bathrooms--you have the chance to give your guests an extraordinary experience that will keep them coming back.

Studying for a culinary degree? Make sure your chef school offers courses in menu development. If you ever want to own your own restaurant, getting training in this area may mean the difference between restaurant success and failure.

Chemistry, biology, enzymology, pharmacology -- they sound like classes for a microbiology student, or perhaps someone studying genetic engineering. But a basic knowledge of these areas may be essential for aspiring chefs as well. This is just part of the reason that food science is a required class for those attending a culinary arts or pastry chef school.

Your culinary degree could land you a career in a restaurant kitchen--or on the television set. Food TV photographers may draw on filmmaking techniques and culinary expertise to cook up virtual meals on screen.

Military meals have a universally bad reputation. That's why it is so amazing to find people putting their culinary educations to work in an Army mess tent. These prize winning chefs are pursuing culinary arts careers while in uniform.

Restaurants are closed or destroyed, but displaced people, rescue workers, and volunteers have to eat. Hundreds of catering jobs are part of the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort. People with catering training are the unsung heroes.

Culinary arts centers may open their doors to the general public, providing average Janes and Joes with an opportunity to learn a new craft, and 'real' culinary students with the chance to try on their teaching caps.

A culinary education isn't just about cooking. Your culinary school may also teach you how to make sure the food you serve is safe. Find out about a few simple rules that even a home cook may learn to keep food safe.

Why go through the five-star apprenticeship if your culinary career dream is to open your own restaurant? Independent vending is gaining credibility, allowing culinary school grads to take their talents to the streets.

Downscale chic has made it onto the three-star menu. It's just a matter of time before jerky gains recognition as a culinary art in its own right. Culinary schools, get your smokers ready for the new 'craft' jerky.

Think you're tempted by food now--what may happen when your culinary career brings you face to face with the world's most exquisite culinary fare? Here are some tactics for avoiding chef school overindulgence.

Traditional sushi chefs are an elite corps with at least ten years training under their belts. But modern Asian fusion has removed some of the mystique from this ancient culinary art. With basic training, anyone may get started creating sculptures in fish.

For many of us, it isn't surprising to hear that foods pictured in ads are not quite what they seem. White glue instead of milk in cereal? Motor oil instead of maple syrup? Mashed potato ice cream? In the hands of a professional food stylist, any dish can stand up to hours on standby, or live under the heat of lights and cameras.

There's something to be said for being a jack of all trades in the kitchen, but picking favorites is an advantage for chefs and conoisseurs alike--it allows you to learn a great deal about your food of choice and what to do with it. Chocolate enjoys this kind of popularity, as do wine and pizza, but you might be surprised by some other culinary specializations. Bacon, anyone?

I've always thought of beets as "grown-up food" (though yes, I am quite grown up now). Once I did try cooking with them, I was appalled at the way people stared at my stained hands for days afterward. Since then, I've figured out how to protect my kitchen (and my hands), and I have grown to love the beet for the light, yet deep flavor it brings to the table.

I have to admit that the first time I ate a bison burger I was scared. Ditto for elk steak. Ditto for venison sausage. But my curiosity got the better of me, and while my husband waited with held breath, I realized that these meats offered a rich unique flavor that trumped beef without question.

They make it look easy, don't they? They have impeccably clean clothes, every ingredient at hand, and always a big, pearly white smile. These are the chefs we see around us--on TV, and on the covers of books and magazines. They seem to hold the world of culinary arts by a string, but more and more culinary school students are finding out just how rare these glitzy lives are.

In our kitchen, we have a whole shelf of broken-spined cookbooks that were passed down from my husband's grandmother. While I continue to be shocked at the use of ingredients like Spam, I am also warmed by the idea that each time I flip through the sun-bleached pages, I feel transported back to West Texas in the '50s, when she was raising a whole gaggle of kids and running a farm.

If you're like most chefs, kids aren't your primary clientele. The truth is most would choose hotdogs or grilled cheese over anything on your usual menu, no matter how carefully planned. Does this mean they don't have a place in the kitchen? Absolutely not! While they can be unpredictably picky and all-too-vocal, kids love to put on an apron and get messy. Who couldn't respect that?

What makes a drink popular? Well, originality always adds a refreshing touch. Factors that seem to contribute to drink popularity today include exotic flavors, health benefits, and innovation. Here are some culinary career tips about beverage trends to help you look beyond strawberry lemonade.

According to a Reuters article on MSNBC.com, the obesity problem in America is affecting yet another area of life and health for many people: medical treatment. If you're going to culinary school to get a culinary arts education, you may likely take a nutrition class, and it's clear that this issue has never been more important for chefs.

She's the chef and owner of a popular gourmet restaurant in California, the co-author of a cookbook, and a pioneer in the food movement that culinary colleges are beginning to notice: gourmet raw food.

When you think about attending chef school to pursue a culinary arts degree, most of the time you probably don't think of training to cook afternoon snacks. Yet some Spanish snacks, tapas, are gaining attention all over the United States, and learning about them might be a valuable part of your chef school education.

Ah, the creativity of the culinary arts! Culinary schools across the country offer all kinds of chef training, including classes that cover French sauces, baking pastries, grilling techniques for juicy meats and accounting. What? Accounting? How does that fit in with culinary artistry?

Acquiring excellent knives is certainly every culinary artist's number one goal. But knives are a necessity, no matter what the price. When it comes to the all-important range, however, this big ticket item is where chefs love to dream.

Television's recent spate of reality chef shows make the hospitality business seem that it's all about the kitchen. However, a hospitality career in business or management is as much a culinary arts career as cooking. How do you know what's right for you? And what do you do when you find your culinary direction? Here's what the pros advise.

According to San Diego magazine, personal chef Jessica Leibovich had to create a diet that was 90% fat for one of her clients: a young boy with epilepsy. Since a ketogenic diet (one that cuts out almost all carbohydrates and emphasizes fats) has been known to reduce the number of seizures in epileptic children, Leibovich put her culinary arts training to work creating meals for the family's specific needs.

A decade ago, Restaurants & Institutions magazine asked restaurant owners and food service executives which was better preparation for a culinary career--an apprenticeship or chef school. Not surprisingly, opinions were mixed, with the majority favoring the chef who gets a culinary degree.

Thinking about going to culinary school? Congratulations! According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, getting formal culinary arts training may give you an edge when you're moving up in your career. But there are some additional traits that might help you have the most successful culinary career possible.

Guy Fieri has now been crowned the "Next Food Network Star" and Reggie's "sassy" cuisine has been sent packing (though I'm betting that a host of celebrity chef appearances already pepper the losing Food Network Star's datebook). Are you in school, wondering how you, too, can mix cooking with entertainment?

Using wine for cooking can add flavor to a dish, tenderize meats, and make food and wine pairing simpler. A culinary education may teach you the two basic ways to use wine in food preparation: marinating and cooking.

The French are well known for their delicious food, which also happens to be very rich and high in saturated fat. So how is it that they have lower incidences of heart disease than their American counterparts? Nutrition classes at culinary institutes could be one way to investigate the answer.

Considering a career in the culinary arts? The lure of possible fame might make a culinary career appealing, but before you invest in culinary school, take a look at some personality traits that may contribute to a great career.

Are you a fan of Italian cioppino? Does the thought of grabbing some sushi make your mouth water? Is your favorite entree at your local Mexican restaurant the mahimahi taco? If you said yes to any of the above, you might be a fish fanatic.

If you haven't made vacation plans and you're hankering for a culinary education, you're in luck. Cooking schools in Europe may pay double dividends. You may get a scenic vacation adventure and a gourmet culinary education too. Just book, cook, relax and enjoy!